Libertarian Principles

These principles form a hierarchy: ethical assumptions identify the subjects of rights, rights limit coercion, and institutions enable cooperation within those limits.

Ethical assumptions#

Political Individualism — The individual is the primary unit of moral consideration. While groups exist and are useful, individuals are the subjects of rights, not groups. The focus on the individual provides the basis for structuring rights and responsibilities.

Legal Equality — Justice should apply universally, without discrimination or privilege based on personal circumstances or characteristics such as race, gender, or creed.

Rights#

Personal Freedom — The individual has the right to pursue their own life projects without coercion, including external aggression, imposition, or control. Freedom is linked to responsibility. Coercion requires justification. Force may be used only to prevent, stop, or remedy violations of rights. Guardianship addresses the issue of subjects lacking moral maturity (e.g. children).

Private Property — A natural extension of personal freedom. Ownership of material resources allows individuals to integrate the material environment into their personal projects. Peacefully acquired assets cannot be arbitrarily expropriated. Property can be lost through extinction or transfer, realized through donation, sale, or explicit or tacit abandonment.

Contractual Autonomy — The freedom to voluntarily bind oneself for the benefit of others. Contracts must be voluntary and free from violence or intimidation. This enables cooperation among free individuals. Voluntary agreements allow individuals to exchange goods, services, and commitments in an expected mutually beneficial manner.

Reparation of Damages — Those who violate rights must compensate for the harm they cause. Solutions include property restitution or monetary compensation.

Institutions for social cooperation#

Freedom of Association — The right to voluntarily associate or not associate to achieve goals. Society is a reflection of such associations, not an association itself to pursue a common end. Associations are also free to establish internal rules and structures to achieve their goals, whether they are familial, economic, or social.

Free Market — Economic interactions, like personal and social ones, should be governed by libertarian principles. The free market is an application of personal freedom, property rights, contractual autonomy and voluntary association in the economic sphere. It ensures that individuals can freely enter professions, own productive resources, and engage in entrepreneurial activities.

Limited Political Authority — The use of coercion within any political community, including modern states or alternative systems, should be strictly limited to protecting individual rights and resolving disputes. Modern states, historically and currently rooted in violence, coercion, and domination, force individuals into involuntary association, undermining the state’s moral and ethical legitimacy.

Other principles#

Universalism — These principles are universal and apply equally to all individuals worldwide. Globalization means extending these principles to interactions between individuals across the globe.